09 - First Takedown (Patreon)

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Maximus ran at the approaching stone dwarf, both hands holding tightly onto the improvised war-hammer's handle. The hammer impacted on the monster's ankle, as splinters of the brick that made up its whole body were flung into every direction. The hammer itself was swung back after the impact as the monster was momentarily stunned, though not for all too long.

Taking the opportunity, Maximus jumped slightly backward while the monster stomped its injured foot down at the small Knight. The moment of the impact that Maximus had skilfully dodged, the hammer was once more swung at the exact same spot as earlier. A flurry of attacks started to unfold, as Maximus used the strength and expertise that filled that small body of his. And before long, the stone was cracked too much to carry the monster's weight, and its ankle fully cracked and it fell to its knee. From where he was standing, Ryan was able to see everything unfold, ready to intervene with his pickaxe should he ever need to. However, there was a very important reason why he wasn't doing so right away.

While Ryan's main purpose for coming here was to complete the quest that Maximus had given him, he thought that it was the best opportunity he was going to get to let Maximus level up. Every class had different ways of levelling up, adhering to the 'purpose' of the class. Combat classes did so by fighting, and in particular a Knight levelled up by 'vanquishing evil'. Though Ryan wasn't a big fan of the idea of assigning the concept of 'evil' to anything, he knew that hunting dungeon monsters was one of the best ways of levelling up the Knight class. And since Ryan's class wasn't a direct combat one, he most likely wouldn't see a massive amount of growth from fighting directly.

If he had to guess, considering that his class was completely built around supporting spirits, at least thus far, his class would most likely grow if he did exactly that; act in a way that allowed Maximus to do what he does best.

And to do that, Ryan was currently looking out for the way to kill this monster. He spotted roots slithering around the crevices of the monster's stone body, as if those were the thing actually holding it all together. They were also already growing and trying to pick up the parts that splintered off through Maximus' attack, most likely to repair itself.

However, as he looked around, there was one part of this plant that was actually exposed. A small, faint red bud that had yet to bloom, just barely peeking out from the bricks right where this thing's ear should be.

"Maximus," Ryan said, trying to stay just under yelling volume so that his voice would echo as little as possible. He had purposefully moved to a place where Maximus could look at him without leaving himself open, as he pointed to his ear. The knight replied with a quick nod as he ran around the monster's body, which twisted around to continue keeping track of its tiny opponent. If it kept doing this, then Maximus wouldn't be able to properly attack the bud, so Ryan quickly ran in and kicked away the monster's foot, purposefully crushing the plant's roots under his boot.

The monster quickly turned its attention toward Ryan and reached out to him, grabbing the end of the pickaxe's handle. However, before Ryan even needed to do anything like pry the tool away, Maximus jumped up.

With the physical strength he had combined with the low weight of his body, Maximus should even be able to jump right onto Ryan's head with ease, so reaching a kneeling dwarf's ear was an easy matter.

Maximus swung his hammer straight at the bud, angling it just right so that the unprotected, juvenile flower was torn off. The moment that this happened, Ryan could see the roots within the monster's body wither away, leaving only a pile of bricks behind.

[You have killed a Level 1 -Dungeon Monster-]

As the system message appeared, Ryan experienced something he hadn't noticed before.

Small particles of dim light, so dim that it would be impossible to spot if it weren't for the shadows of this ruined structure, surrounded Maximus like a cloud of dust releasing from a surface all at once, before soon flowing back inside of the armour. But it wasn't just Maximus; as he looked down at his hand, Ryan spotted similar grains of dimly glowing dust surround him for a brief instant. It felt both warm and cold, almost like frostbite, just without any sort of pain connected to it. He had gathered some 'experience'. It seemed like he was on the right track; simply supporting Maximus was going to let him level up.

And now that he properly realized this, he could recognize this sensation from when he was actually building Maximus' body. He was feeling a lot of new things then, since he was using magic for the first time, but he most likely gained some experience then as well. That being the case, Ryan did wonder how close he was to levelling up.

He stepped over to the pile of bricks and picked one of them up. It was a lot lighter than it should be. Curiously, Ryan tightened his grip on the brick and watched it crumble away like it was made of foam. These bricks had been created by the dungeon specifically for this monster, and now that it was 'dead', it was reclaiming the materials it used, which was making it as weak as foam. It should take a few more minutes until it was fully gone, but Ryan didn't want to wait that long. He took the bricks and placed them on a pile next to him, searching through the monster's stone remains. And then, on the ground below them, amongst some crumbs of that foam-brick, Ryan found what he was looking for.

'Some... seeds? Those are the drops..?' Ryan thought to himself, though he wasn't sure what he was expecting. A monster like this wouldn't drop anything special. Though he doubted he could sell these seeds to anyone for more than some spare change, maybe he could try planting them in some pots on the balcony. Runar did love plants, so maybe this was going to help smooth things over with him.

Ryan opened up the small pouch hanging off his belt and placed all of the tiny seeds inside. He stood back up and wiped the dust off his gloves, looking back over at Maximus, "Good to go?"

The Knight nodded his head, and Ryan and Maximus continued on through the dungeon. Though, it didn't take long until they ended up in a slightly worrisome situation. Just behind the minecart that the monster was trying to push forward was a door that seemed to lead into a larger hall. According to the map, this was one of the rooms corresponding to the part of the old foundry where the metal was actually smelted down and cast into ingots. Ryan could hear some footsteps beyond the door. So, he had two options.

One, turn around and go to another part of the dungeon that was easier to look over. However, avoiding spaces like this didn't seem like a good option at all. The quest that Maximus gave him was to investigate this place, and staying in the safe parts wouldn't really make for a great investigation. He needed to go to places where things were actually happening.

So, number two it was. Ryan looked over at Maximus and gave him the hand-sign they had decided on, before the knight quickly nodded his head. And so, Ryan activated one of his skills, 'Spirit Link'.

[Spirit Link]

[Level - 3] [Proficiency - 56%]

[Allows for the user to mentally link with the target Spirit, guiding their actions. During the activation period, the user has an extremely strong understanding of the target Spirit's body and the effect of their skills]

[Effect - Spirit Link for 10 Minutes 40 Seconds]

[Cost - 10.5 MP] [Cooldown - 40 Minutes 20 Seconds]

It was already at 56%, so it might level up today, depending on how much he was going to end up needing to use it. He concentrated on the skill's effect and watched as those red wisps of magic flowed out from his chest and over to Maximus. They thinned out and flowed around each other, slowly forming a thread as thin as spider's silk.

The moment that the thread fully formed, Ryan felt a wave of dizziness come over him. He didn't exactly share Maximus' senses now, but he simply 'knew' what it was that the spirit was seeing and hearing. As if the processed information that you would gather by looking at things was simply given to him. It was a bit awkward to keep track of, but that was the main thing that Ryan and Maximus had been practicing while using this skill, so that Ryan could actually make use of this skill decently.

There were some other effects, like allowing Maximus to copy Ryan's movement almost perfectly, but there wasn't a real use for that right now. Maximus was more than skilled at fighting on his own. However, due to the way that senses were shared, this skill could be used in a very specific way.

Maximus walked through the small gap in the ajar door, quickly rushing over to one of the rusted minecarts that had been left standing nearby. Using it as cover, he moved around it and then made his way to one of the other pieces of machinery within this large room, until he positioned himself in a way where he could safely see the area around the door that he had just left. Seeing that there was no monster directly nearby, Ryan slowly pushed open the door, waited a second, and while crouched, rushed toward the minecart. Like this, the two continued making their way through the room. And it didn't take long until a few of the monsters popped up, walking through the rows between the heavy machinery and broken-down carts. And whenever they did, Maximus would look for them, taking advantage of his small size, and Ryan would use the information given to him through 'Spirit Link' to navigate safely. However, the skill effect only lasted for a bit more than ten minutes.

Luckily, there was a catwalk nearby, and the stairway was positioned so that Ryan was able to make his way up there without being spotted. There were some other monsters on the catwalk in other parts of the room, but there were plenty of crates to allow Ryan to hide himself without being spotted, and most of the monsters were over by the crucible anyway, and not back here where Ryan and Maximus were hiding out.

Ryan carefully sneaked over the catwalk, trying to get to a better position to see what was going on. All the monsters were walking around that massive crucible on the other side of the room. The heat in here was already unbearable, but it was clearly a lot worse right over there. Ryan was able to see the monsters carry the heavily-oxidized copper to the top of the crucible, throwing it into the red hot liquid inside. And now that he was here, Ryan could actually see the differences in the monsters; they weren't all dwarves, at least.

Some looked more like humans or elves in their stature, others a bit more bulky and muscular like orcs. And there was a single on that was far taller than the rest, a Cyclops. Though Cyclopes were a species that was in the vast minority here in this country, making up only about a percent of all people in all of Riveria, they made up a significant portion of workers during the era of industrialization, and to this day could be seen in construction and these sorts of factories. However, right now, seeing a four-metre Cyclops made of stone was quite terrifying, and the fact that these 'Worker' monsters were replications of the people that used to work in this factory quickly became quite annoying. Ryan frowned lightly as he stared at the crucible. It was nearly filled to the top.

Since this is a fairly new dungeon, there wasn't too much information about this place yet beyond some basic maps that were created using special tools, as well as the general appearance of the monsters. So far, three monsters had been found.

The first, most common, and weakest; the 'Worker'. The ones that were currently swarming the dungeon. The second had been dubbed the 'Foreman', which seemed quite similar in general, but the gaps in-between bricks were filled completely with copper, and there were certain areas completely covered in copper as well. The last kind was even more enhanced, the 'Manager', but Ryan did hope that he didn't have to encounter one of those today. However, as he looked around, Ryan thought this was too good of an opportunity to simply pass up.

He looked at one of the sheaths attached to his pants, detaching the scissors from it. Silvia had sharpened these a ton apparently, creating a second edge on each of the scissor-blades, meaning that Ryan had to be really careful with this. But this seemed like the best tool for the job.

"Ready to nip some buds?" Ryan whispered, and Maximus immediately nodded his head. He held the hammer back toward Ryan and then swapped it for the scissors. Maximus opened them wide, and when they were opened to their limit, the piece that was keeping them together in the middle released with a click, as the knight was now holding dual blades.

Ryan carefully picked up Maximus and continued moving forward in a crouch. Soon, they got close to one of the Workers that was up here on the Catwalk with them. It was walking toward one of the sets of stairs, but looking around, this seemed like probably the best time to attack. Ryan looked for the flower bud, but it wasn't by the ear this time. Instead, it was left of where a belly-button would be. Right now, the two were hidden behind on of the old, half-rotten crates, and the monster would be walking right past them.

It was about five steps away when Ryan got ready. Maximus carefully held the scissor-blades while hanging onto Ryan's hands, who was holding the knight in front of his chin, getting ready to toss him forward.

Once it was three steps away, Ryan could feel his heart pound in his chest, almost drowning out the sound of the monster's footsteps on the metal surface. Maximus activated his 'Knight's Attack' skill.

When it was just a single step away, Ryan slightly pulled Maximus back for the moment that the monster stepped into sight, and Maximus' blades were fully enveloped in that soft red light.

Maximus was thrown forward, passing by right in front of the Worker's belly. With a skilful, quick motion, the soft pink flower bud was cut apart. The monster seemed to react for just a moment, but immediately fell forward onto its knees as the roots holding its body together were rotting away.

The sound was quite loud from where Ryan was standing, since it was right in front of him, but considering the general volume in the room, it didn't seem like any of the other Workers heard it. Or if they did, they didn't seem to care to investigate, simply continuing on with their work without batting an eye. Though, they didn't have eyes to begin with.

Ryan grinned lightly as he dismissed the kill-message in front of him, as Maximus carefully landed on the branching catwalk that Ryan had been facing. This seemed like a fairly simple tactic of fighting these things, at least as long as Ryan knew where the bud was and the monster didn't see them beforehand. So while it did require a few things to fall into place, it still seemed effective. Just knowing for sure that the flower bud was the weakness of all these guys was already good enough for Ryan to figure something out for the others. Having such a basic, fragile, and clearly exposed weakness would definitely make this a lot easier.

Ryan could once more feel that wave of 'experience' come over him, and carefully started putting the monster's bricks to the side. Once again, only seeds were dropped. Ryan carefully picked up as many of them as he could and placed them into his pouch.

Though, as he did, a red window popped up in front of him. From the colour, he could tell that it was a notification relating to Maximus.

[The -Knight's Attack- Skill has levelled up]

'Already? So it's level 4 now,' Ryan thought. It was the highest skill either him or Maximus had so far. The Spirit Link and Spirit Construction skills were the next in line, each being at level 3. Though, as Ryan looked at the skill's effect, he couldn't help but be impressed with that level of growth.

[Knight’s Attack]

[Level - 4] [Proficiency – 2%]

[An offensive aura envelops your weapon]

[Effect - +17.5% Damage for 1 Minute]

[Cost – 13 AP] [Cooldown – 2 Minutes]

At level 1, the skill only gave a 10% damage-boost. If it kept growing like this, this would clearly be a ridiculous skill, though with the AP cost rising alongside the damage, it would clearly also get quite expensive over time. Luckily, it was apparently possible to use a skill at a lower level than what one actually reached, though it would yield much less proficiency. It was something that usually only the cream of the crop were able to do, but seeing how Maximus moved, Ryan was confident that he would be able to do it at some point.

Whichever the case, Ryan looked around at the other parts of the catwalk. There were more monsters here. Maybe if they took all these down, it would be enough to earn either Maximus or himself a level-up.

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